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The Fossil Grove is a group of plant fossils located within
Victoria Park Victoria Park may refer to:
Places Australia
* Victoria Park Nature Reserve, a protected area in Northern Rivers region, New South Wales
* Victoria Park, Adelaide, a park and racecourse
* Victoria Park, Brisbane, a public park and former golf ...
,
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. It was discovered in 1887 and contains the
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
ised stumps and roots of eleven extinct ''
Lepidodendron'' trees, which are sometimes described as "
giant club mosses" but are more closely related to
quillworts. The Fossil Grove is managed as a museum and has been a popular tourist attraction since it opened for public viewing in 1890.
The site, Glasgow's most ancient visitor attraction and the remnants of an extensive ancient forest, is viewed from within a building constructed to protect the fossils from the elements.
Description
The Fossil Grove is on a by floor of an old quarry, and belongs to the same geological time period as several other groups of ''
Lepidodendron'' fossils found northwest of
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
.
[ The ]shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...
s and sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
s exposed around the fossils belong to the Limestone Coal Formation of the Clackmannan Group
The Clackmannan Group is the name given to a suite of rocks of late Dinantian and Namurian age laid down during the Carboniferous period in the Midland Valley of Scotland.
Description
The Group comprises a lower unit of coarse sandstones, sil ...
, with the shale containing imprints of various plant remains. The strata
In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...
were deposited approximately 325 million years ago when the trees were still alive, and the strata are now folded and cut by many faults and slant downwards to the northeast. The quarry in which the fossils were found is an igneous
Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or ...
dolerite
Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro,
is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grained ...
sill
Sill may refer to:
* Sill (dock), a weir at the low water mark retaining water within a dock
* Sill (geology), a subhorizontal sheet intrusion of molten or solidified magma
* Sill (geostatistics)
* Sill (river), a river in Austria
* Sill plate, a ...
that was intruded into the sediments and two of the trunks during the Early Permian 01 or '01 may refer to:
* The year 2001, or any year ending with 01
* The month of January
* 1 (number)
Music
* '01 (Richard Müller album), 01'' (Richard Müller album), 2001
* 01 (Son of Dave album), ''01'' (Son of Dave album), 2000
* 01 (Urban ...
period approximately 290 million years ago. The dolerite
Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro,
is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grained ...
was used to macadam
Macadam is a type of road construction, pioneered by Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam around 1820, in which crushed stone is placed in shallow, convex layers and compacted thoroughly. A binding layer of stone dust (crushed stone from the o ...
ize nearby roads. The trees were only discovered after the quarry was abandoned when it was landscaped into the new Victoria Park.
The stumps themselves are internal casts of the hollow trees, representing the huge cortical meristem of the trees rather than the woody interior. The remnants of trunks belonged to '' Lepidodendron veltheimianum'' trees and the root systems were '' Stigmaria ficoides''.[ Most trunks are in diameter and tall, and a single larger stump stands in the western part of the grove, measuring in diameter. Some fossils have small wrinkles on their exterior, suggesting wrinkled bark, but fine details are poorly preserved in the fossils. The roots have the dichotomous branching pattern indicative of ''Stigmaria'' and extend over from the trunks. The trees would have grown during the ]Carboniferous
The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...
period when Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
was a more tropical area, situated near the equator. The trees grew in a low, swampy environment that would often flood. The distribution of the trunks suggests that the Grove was once part of a Paleozoic
The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon.
The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838
by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...
forest that was chiefly composed of ''Lepidodendron'' trees.
The sandstone in the Grove is covered with shale that was deposited as mud in a major flooding episode, and this deposition of sediment knocked over and killed the trees. The soft tissues of the cortical meristem and inner phelloderm
Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines, and shrubs. Bark refers to all the tissues outside the vascular cambium and is a nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consist ...
of the trees then decomposed and made the trees and root systems hollow, and subsequent flood waters filled the hollow tree stumps with sand. Ripple marks on some surfaces indicate a south-western flow of the flood waters. The trunks were then buried and lithified, and became molds in the surrounding sandstone. The sand inside the trunks became solid rock, and the outer bark of the trees became a thin layer of coal. Though some trunks are elliptical, especially the tallest, ''Lepidodendron'' trees were typically circular. The deformations were likely caused by the force of the rising flood waters that filled the trunks with sand, as indicated by the tendency for the deformations to be in the same direction as the ripple marks, towards the south-west.
Besides the fossil stumps, the only other indications of organic life in the strata of the Fossil Grove are ''Arenicola
''Arenicola'' is a genus of capitellid annelid worm comprising the lugworm
The lugworm or sandworm (''Arenicola marina'') is a large marine worm of the phylum Annelida. Its coiled castings are a familiar sight on a beach at low tide but the a ...
'' burrows found in some sandstone beds.
History
In 1885 part of the Scotstoun
Scotstoun ( gd, Baile an Sgotaich) is an area of Glasgow, Scotland, west of Glasgow City Centre. It is bounded by Garscadden and Yoker to the west, Victoria Park, Jordanhill and Whiteinch to the east, Jordanhill to the north and the River Clyde ...
estate was leased to create a park, and the Fossil Grove was discovered in late 1887 when a pilot channel was cut through an old quarry in preparation for the construction of a road in the park.[ In April 1888 members of the Geological Society of Glasgow suggested to leave the fossils in situ and construct a building around the fossils. The commissioners of ]Partick
Partick ( sco, Pairtick, Scottish Gaelic: ''Partaig'') is an area of Glasgow on the north bank of the River Clyde, just across from Govan. To the west lies Whiteinch, to the east Yorkhill and Kelvingrove Park (across the River Kelvin), and to t ...
elected to leave the fossils where they were uncovered and in 1889, at a cost of about £400, constructed a building to contain the fossils. On 1 January 1890, the Fossil House covering the Fossil Grove opened to the public. The wooden roof timbers of the House were replaced with metal trusses in the 1920s. A bomb damaged the roof and a single trunk during World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, and a concrete spacer replaced the center of the damaged trunk. The windowed roof was replaced with regular roof panels in the 1970s. Today the building continues to be maintained by Glasgow City Council. The Fossil Grove Trust (along with Historic Scotland) are working with the Council to improve the drainage, ventilation, and interpretation of the site. Friends of Victoria Park are establishing a fernery in the adjacent quarry area. The fossil trees are designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...
.[
]
Visitor information
The Fossil Grove is open from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. only on the third Sunday of the month, from April to October, and the surrounding park is always open. The Fossil House has stone and tarmac paths and a few stone steps, and is wheelchair accessible. The walk around the entire quarry is about long. Admission is free.
About east of the Fossil House is an oak sculpture of a Lycopod
Lycopodiopsida is a class of vascular plants known as lycopods, lycophytes or other terms including the component lyco-. Members of the class are also called clubmosses, firmosses, spikemosses and quillworts. They have dichotomously branching s ...
tree with a giant centipede. The sculpture was constructed in 2014 to commemorate the 20th Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...
.[
]
See also
* Fossil Forest, Dorset
The Fossil Forest is the remains of an ancient submerged forest from Jurassic times, located to the east of Lulworth Cove on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, England.Ian WestGeology of the Purbeck Fossil Forest ''Geology of the Wessex Coast of Sou ...
References
External links
*
Fossil Grove website
Images of the Fossil Grove and its fossils
at The Glasgow Story
{{coord, 55.8767, N, 4.3382, W, display=title
Paleontological sites of Europe
Museums in Glasgow
Fossils of Scotland
Carboniferous Scotland
Natural history museums in Scotland
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Scotland
1887 in Scotland
1887 in science
Serpukhovian